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Revolutionizing Patent Processes and Emergency Services with AI

April 19, 2024

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Welcome to another edition of Open Scout, where we showcase the most exciting early-stage startups, job openings, and valuable resources, all in a single newsletter.

Before we begin... a big thank you to this week's sponsor

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Startup Spotlight

What? - Garden is building AI-powered search and analysis tools to make the patent process less painful and more effective for R&D organizations, inventors, prosecutors, and litigators. Their flagship product, Patentbreaker, is a groundbreaking 102/103 prior art search tool that automates the generation of claims charts for inter-partes reviews.

Why? - Patent searches are notoriously time-consuming and complex, requiring sifting through vast amounts of data to distill crucial information. This process is essential for identifying potential legal issues and market opportunities. Inaccuracies in this process can lead to patent rejection, legal disputes, and wasted resources.

Traditional methods often rely on manual labor, which can be slow and prone to errors. Moreover, using human-in-the-loop services can raise ethical concerns, particularly regarding trade secrets and live litigation.

Founded: 2023 in New York, NY

By: Adi Sidapara (CEO), Justin Mack (CTO)

Stage: Seed

Funding: N/A

What? - Aurelian automates non-emergency calls for 9-1-1 centers through an AI-powered operator that efficiently routes, triages, and resolves administrative calls without requiring human intervention.

This isn't your typical "press 0 for a representative" call-center robot; it converses and behaves like an actual dispatcher, seamlessly inputting information directly into Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management Systems (RMS).

Why? - Nationwide, emergency communications centers (ECCs) are grappling with a significant staffing shortage, averaging at 30%. This scarcity contributes to call-taker burnout and attrition, exacerbating the staffing crisis. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, 9-1-1 call wait times have become unmanageable, leaving callers on long holds during emergencies.

What's most alarming is that 60-80% of the calls received by 9-1-1 operators aren't genuine emergencies; they consist of administrative matters that are redirected to ECCs: noise complaints, lost pets, paying parking fines, and so forth.

Founded: 2022 in Seattle, USA

By: Max Keenan, James Liu - ex-Software Engineer @ Microsoft

Stage: Seed

Funding: $2.5 million

Which early-stage startup should we feature next? Send us a reply. (Criteria: Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups)

Venture Deals

  • Ramp, a NYC-based spend management platform, concluded a $150 million Series D-2 round at a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion. Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund led the round, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Greylock, and 8VC.

  • Allen Control Systems, an Austin, TX-based defense tech company focused on counter-drone robotic gun systems, raised a $12 million seed round. Craft Ventures led the round, with participation from Forum Ventures and Rally Ventures.

  • Cape, a Washington, D.C.-based privacy-first mobile carrier, secured $61 million across funding rounds. A* and Andreessen Horowitz led the rounds, with participation from XYZ Ventures, ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures.

  • Pliant, a Berlin, Germany-based B2B credit card platform, raised €18 million in a Series A extension. PayPal Ventures led the round, with participation from SBI Investment, Motive Ventures, and Alstin Capital.

  • Flatpay, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based provider of POS systems and payment solutions for small and medium-sized merchants, raised $47 million in Series B funding. Dawn Capital led the round, with participation from Seed Capital and others.

  • Anvilogic, a Palo Alto, CA-based multi-data security information and event management (SIEM) platform, secured $45 million in Series C funding. Evolution Equity Partners led the round, with participation from Foundation Capital, Cervin Ventures, Myriad Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Outpost Ventures, Stepstone Group, and G Squared.

  • Vorlon, a Mountain View, CA-based third-party API security platform, raised $15.7 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round, with participation from Shield Capital and others.

  • AI Squared, a Washington, D.C.-based company that helps organizations deliver data and AI insights into business applications, raised $13.8 million in Series A funding. Ansa Capital led the round, with participation from NEA and Ridgeline.

  • Draftboard, a NYC-based hiring platform where companies can publicly post their referral bonuses, raised $4.1 million in pre-seed funding. Twelve Below led the round and was joined by Founder Collective, Ground Up, and Amino.

  • GovDash, a NYC-based AI-powered platform designed to assist with government contracts raised $10 million in Series A funding. Northzone led the round, with participation from existing investor Y Combinator.

  • Toku, a Santiago, Chile-based recurring payments platform, raised $9.3 million in Series A funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, with participation from F-Prime, Clocktower, Y Combinator, Funders Club, and Wollef.

  • Lawhive, a London, UK-based legal tech startup that offers an AI-based, in-house “lawyer” through a software-as-a-service platform targeted at small law firms, raised £9.5 million in seed funding. GV led the round and was joined by Episode 1 Ventures.

  • Bridgewise, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of an AI-based analytics platform for global securities, raised $21 million in funding. SIX Group led the round, with participation from Group11, L4 Venture Building, and others.

  • Paraform, a San Francisco, CA-based recruitment platform aimed at startups, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. A* led the round, with participation from Primer Sazze Partners and others.

  • Patlytics, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered patent platform, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Gradient led the round, with participation from 8VC, Liquid 2 Ventures, Tribe Capital, Vermilion Ventures, Gaingels, Alumni Ventures, Position Ventures, and others.

  • Anrok, a San Francisco, CA-based global sales tax platform for software companies, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, with participation from Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and others.

Funds

  • SOSV, a venture firm based in Princeton, NJ, raised $306 million for its fifth fund, marking its largest fund to date. SOSV V will concentrate on supporting deep tech startups in the domains of human and planetary health.

  • Maven Ventures, headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, secured $60 million for its fourth fund, $5 million less than Fund III. The new fund will maintain the venture firm's strategy of investing in early-stage companies in high-growth consumer tech sectors such as AI applications, personalized healthcare, climate sustainability, family technology, and fintech.

Elsewhere

  • AltStore PAL, a third-party iOS app store, is now available in the EU after Apple's compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The store requires a €1.50 (plus tax) annual subscription to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF) for installing the app marketplace itself. (Source: The Verge)

  • Meta has introduced Llama 3, the latest model in its open-source AI series. They've also updated Meta AI, their assistant, empowering it to provide real-time answers using information from Google and Bing. This positions Meta's open models as strong competitors against closed models from Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Users can access the Meta AI assistant through the search bars on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, or via the new meta.ai website. Axios has more here.

  • Google consolidates AI efforts under DeepMind, led by Demis Hassabis. All AI teams, including Gemini chatbot developers, will unite under DeepMind. This includes research, model development, computing resources, and ensuring accuracy and trustworthiness. Read more in The Financial Times.

  • In Q1 2024, VC funding for crypto and blockchain projects saw its first quarterly increase since 2021. Web3 startups raised nearly $1.9 billion across 346 deals, a 58% surge from the previous quarter. Despite this, the overall trend remains downward, with year-ago quarterly figures down 17% and deal counts halved. Crunchbase has more here.

  • Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in UAE-based AI firm G42, marking the largest new round of investment in an AI startup this year.

  • Mercury, a business banking startup, has launched a consumer banking product called Mercury Personal, amid a trend of fintechs shifting away from consumer-focused offerings. The subscription fee for Mercury Personal is $240 annually and includes features like multiple debit cards with customizable spending limits, access to up to $5M in FDIC insurance through partner banks, and interest-bearing savings accounts.

  • Stanford University has released its seventh "AI Index Report."

  • How cloud seeding boosts rainfall — and why that’s controversial.

New Job Openings

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See you next Thursday — Kenneth

P.S. Interested in sponsoring next week's issue? Shoot me an email.